Thursday, October 27, 2011

Night 27 of "Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween"

Welcome to night 27 of "Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween". Tonight we have a review of the next movie on our Halloween Movie List. Make sure to stop by our GIANT Giveaway and enter to win a goodie bag full of frightfully good treats from 17 different shops! But first lets get to our featured item of the night from Laughing Vixen Lounge.

Directed by E. Elias Merhige (Suspect Zero) and released on January 26, 2001 by Lions Gate Films (rated R). Was the reason that the 1922 film Nosferatu was so effective because actor Max Schreck really was a Vampire? Hmmmmmm....*******

Willem Dafoe, in my opinion, is one of the most underrated actors around. This movie shows how amazing he can be. It's an interesting take on the filming of the classic "Nosferatu". What if the movie was so convincing because the lead actor really was a Vampire? If you haven't seen it, do! It's a great piece of work. Willem Dafoe is almost unrecognisable as Max Schreck. *******

Some trivia about the movie...
1. The locomotive that conveys the film crew to Czechoslovakia is named "Charon". In Greek myth, Charon was the ferryman who conveyed the souls of the dead across the river Styx.
2. The part of Max Schreck was written specifically for Willem Dafoe
3. Udo Kier, who appears as Albin Grau, played the Count himself in Blood for Dracula (a.k.a. Blood for Dracula) and Vampire Elder Dragonetti in Blade
4. Willem Dafoe was hired as The Green Goblin in Spider-Man after the producers watched his performance in this film.
5. The music played on the phonograph to set the mood for the actors in some of the scenes is the soundtrack of Dracula written by John Williams.
6. Based in part upon a legend that Max Schreck was in reality a vampire which is why he played the role of Orlock/Dracula so well. Some variations of the legend suggest that Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens was the only film Schreck made, though in reality he was already a stage and screen veteran by the time Nosferatu was shot, and would appear in many non-Vampiric roles before his death in 1936.